Stuart Cohen for Civil Court Judge

Published: October 15, 1987

Last month's Democratic primary in Manhattan's First Municipal Court District was too close to call: the difference between vote totals for the incumbent, Judge Lester Evens, and the challenger, Stuart Cohen, was smaller than the number of questionable ballots. That's why registered Democrats go to the polls next Tuesday for a rerun. (The district runs from the Battery to 14th Street on the West Side of Manhattan; its eastern boundary is irregular, and voters who are not certain they live within it should check with the Board of Elections.) Mr. Cohen, who has served New York City well as an administrator of city contracts and arbitrator of disputes between vendors and government, still deserves endorsement. Judge Evens, formerly a legal services lawyer, has served a full 10-year term. In that time, he was censured by the Commission on Judicial Conduct for four instances of misbehavior in the courtroom.

The misconduct included an invitation to a prostitute to join him on the bench, a demand that a lawyer before him apologize to all present in the courtroom and a warning to a contemptuous defendant that he would be subject to racial harassment in jail. The City Bar Association, examining these incidents, detected sufficient mitigation to find Judge Evens qualified for re-election; it also finds Mr. Cohen qualified.

The re-election of a judge who has been censured by the Judicial Conduct Commission would set an unfortunate example. We recommend a vote for Stuart Cohen.